Blog post

Sisters in Revolution: Women in Egypt are making headlines and leading in revolutionary action

Morgan Buck 4 February 2011

Over the past two weeks, women have been playing an enormous role in the call for political change in Egypt, quite possibly altering how the world views them and their radical global counterparts.

Throughout history, the role of women in radical civil action has been both controversial and extremely underappreciated. This may be changing, however, with rapidly spreading news, videos and images of women leading in protests against President Mubarak and speaking out against oppression of the Egyptian people.

The kind of peer-to-peer circulation permitted by YouTube and other social media has been bolstered significantly by large-scale news outlets. Speaking on Democracy Now!, prominent Egyptian feminist and human rights activist Nawel El Saadawi shares her story and comments on gender equality in the recent protests:

Recent coverage of Egyptian women in protest can be found in a number of mainstream sources, including the Huffington Post, NY Times, LA Times and Foreign Policy. See the Guardian for more on the work of Nawel Ed Saadawi.